The Russian-speaking Populations in the Post-Soviet Space

Language, Politics and Identity

Ammon Cheskin, Angela Kachuyevski, Ammon Cheskin, Angela Kachuyevski

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9780367647261
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000330809
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

In the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea, this volume examines the relationship Russia has with its so-called 'compatriots abroad'. Based on research from Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Ukraine, the authors examine complex relationships between these individuals, their home states, and the Russian Federation.

Russia stands out globally as a leading sponsor of kin-state nationalism, vociferously claiming to defend the interests of its so-called diaspora, especially the tens of millions of ethnic Russians and Russian speakers who reside in the countries that were once part of the Soviet Union. However, this volume shifts focus away from the assertive diaspora politics of the Russian state, towards the actual groups of Russian speakers in the post-Soviet space themselves. In a series of empirically grounded studies, the authors examine complex relationships between 'Russians', their home-states and the Russian Federation. Using evidence from Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, and Ukraine, the findings demonstrate multifaceted levels of belonging and estrangement with spaces associated with Russia and the new, independent states in which Russian speakers live. By focusing on language, media, politics, identity and quotidian interactions, this collection provides a wealth of material to help understand contemporary kin-state policies and their impact on group identities and behaviour.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Europe-Asia Studies.

Minority Reconsidered: Towards a Typology of Latvia's Russophone Identity

MĀRTIŅŠ KAPRĀNS & INTA MIERIŅA

Abstract

Latvia’s Russophones are often seen as a consolidated ethno-linguistic unit. The goal of this essay is to test this assumption by exploring Russophones’ in-group differentiation over an extended period of time. Conceptually, the essay combines social representation theory with the quadratic nexus model. By analysing cross-sectional survey data it is argued that citizenship of Latvia and generational belonging are two major factors that explain the deviation from the standard model of identification that is primarily imposed by Russia as a symbolic homeland. The essay also suggests that the standard model has experienced inconsistent support over the years and this has opened up space for identification with a more emancipated in-group representation.

ON 18 MARCH 2014, THE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT,VLADIMIR PUTIN, held a historical meeting in the Kremlin to mark the admission of Crimea to the Russian Federation. Addressing both chambers of the Federal Assembly, Putin outlined the major motives that morally justified the admission. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Putin argued, ‘the Russian nation became one of the biggest, if not the biggest ethnic group in the world to be divided by borders’.¹ This lamentation, among other things, echoed the Kremlin’sambitionsto assemble Russophone communities under the Russian World umbrella (see the Introduction to this Special Issue). The Russian World, as an ideological category, posits a naturally existing civilisational community that has evolved around the Russian language and culture, evoking a sense of a common past and shared traditional values that are at odds with decaying Western values (Feklyunina 2016). Specifically, Putin referred in his speech to Russian-speakers in the post-Soviet area, where the Kremlin has taken the most decisive steps towards re-appropriating and securitising the Russian world.

1 ‘Address by President of the Russian Federation’, 18 March 2014, available at: http://en.kremlin. ru/events/president/news/20603, accessed 9 November 2018.

To be sure, individual post-Soviet ‘nationalising states’ (Brubaker 1996) with large Russophone minorities are indispensable discursive counterparts in terms of the Russian World. The ruling political elites of the Baltic states—especially after the Russia–Ukraine conflict escalated in 2014—have been particularly concerned with Russophones’ allegiances and the Kremlin’s intention to protect Russia’s allegedly suppressed compatriots. This anxiety often objectifies Russophones as a solid community, overlooking internal fragmentation and multi-directionality of social or political identification among this group. Along with the discursive rivalry between Russia and Baltic elites, international actors (OSCE, EU, UN) and Western countries are also prone to use essentialist language, extrapolating the Russophones as an undifferentiated and constant group.

Mārtiņs Kaprāns’s work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund (post-doc project no. 1.1.1.2/VIAA/1/16/103). Inta Mierin¸a’s work was supported by the National Research Programme SUSTINNO.

Ethnicity and nationalism scholars have challenged the primordialist political discourse on Russophone communities in the post-Soviet area (Laitin 1998; Cheskin 2016). Nevertheless, within scholarly debates, social changes and in-group diversity have too often remained a peripheral topic. Notwithstanding the significance of research on macro-level f...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Post-Soviet Space: Language, Politics and Identity
• 1 Minority Reconsidered: Towards a Typology of Latvia’s Russophone Identity
• 2 Identity and Media-use Strategies of the Estonian and Latvian Russian-speaking Populations Amid Political Crisis
• 3 Diversity in Daugavpils: Unpacking Identity and Cultural Engagement among Minority School Youth in Eastern Latvia
• 4 Where Do I Belong? Narratives of Rodina among Russian-speaking Youth in Kazakhstan
• 5 Russian-speaking Belarusian Nationalism: An Ethnolinguistic Identity Without a Language?
• 6 The Ukrainian-Russian Linguistic Dyad and its Impact on National Identity in Ukraine
• 7 Identity in Transformation: Russian-speakers in Post-Soviet Ukraine
• Index